CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 23 



exercised an influence upon higher education in America 

 that words cannot express. The history of education 

 shows no parallel to the growth and development of this 

 University. What are the secrets of this growth ? 



We shall find an adequate explanation for the success 

 of Cornell University in the men who have built it, and 

 in the foundations upon which they built. Ezra Cor- 

 nell's heart and hand, and Andrew D. White's heart 

 and brain, are wrought into its very texture. It was 

 not alone Ezra Cornell's gift of money, and devotion to 

 the care of the University funds that constituted his in- 

 estimable service in its advancement, but it was even 

 more the broad and liberal foundations upon which he 

 would have it built. Andrew D. White lent to the 

 work a wide experience in other institutions of learning, 

 a breadth and catholicity of culture seldom equalled, 

 great liberality of opinion and unusual administrative 

 talent. During the life-time of Mr. Cornell he was 

 nobly assisted by such men as John McGraw, Hiram 

 Sibley and Henry W. Sage, and after his death the 

 Trustees proved themselves worthy to carry on the 

 great undertaking. No institution ever encountered 

 severer opposition, none ever went through darker trials, 

 but she has conquered opposition and difficulties, and is 

 to-day richer, stronger and more prosperous than ever 

 before. 



